This was an easy book to like. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

We have some great botanical horror here on an impossible to escape train setting. The confined, trapped feeling of the narrow train carriages worked so well for creating tension and suspense.

There were a few points in the narrative where things didn’t quite seem to add up and this was a little jarring. However this didn’t detract from what was a great reading experience. The characters are quite young so this does have a YA feel and there were points where I had to suspend my disbelief. But the skilful build up of suspense and menace more than made up for this.

There’s two areas this book did exceptionally well. One was the botanical and folkloric horror which I absolutely loved. It was so creepy yet beautiful and evoked gorgeously throughout the book. I really loved the juxtaposition of nature and science in this too. The second was the use of the train as a setting. It was so integral to the story and it massively enhanced the terror in the book. This is told from the perspective of the staff rather than the passengers so we had a different lens on this luxury journey across Europe.

As a fan of gothic, horror and mystery novels I found this thoroughly enjoyable!